602 SWABEY DIARY. 
deavour to get off the French gun we had taken as it was threatened. 
I took two pairs of horses and though it had no limber got it off to the 
rear and delivered it over to General Hill’s division.1 
Knowing where the troop was to halt I made for that point and got 
into camp at Isar quite wet, it having rained all day. The horses got 
a bad night; our men covered with tents fared better. 
13th June.—My 28rd year closed this hated day, I am sorry to say 
it brought with it many moral and unpleasant reflexions ; how little wiser, 
how little better, and little advanced in life [am God only knows. Iam 
no nearer the best and only object of all my wishes, the only progress I 
have made is in my age. Philosophy may be a source of consolation 
but insensibility is so inseparable from it that I am not ashamed to 
confess that it has no charms for me; but adieu to melancholy 
reflections. 
Lord Wellington having made a demonstration on the high road 
yesterday, and perhaps having intended to invest Burgos, was with 
everyone else surprised and delighted at hearing at 7 o’clock this 
morning a heavy explosion which soon turned out to be Burgos, ill-fated 
Burgos, flying up in theair. Here ended the curse of the English army, 
the obstacle to all our designs. The army was immediately put in 
motion and away we went on the enemy’s flanks still keeping General 
Hill’s corps in their rear to blind them. Night brought us to a wet 
camp in a ploughed field near Tovar. 
It is interesting here to learn from Wellington’s own words how 
he was influenced by the destruction of Burgos.—(#.a.w.) 
“When I advanced upon Burgos the second time, and had taken 
my measures for driving back all the French posts and 
attacking the place, I was very much surprised by a loud 
explosion ; they had blown up Burgos... .. . When I 
heard and saw the explosion (for I was within a few miles and 
the effect was tremendous) I made a sudden resolution forth- 
with—instanter to cross the Ebro, and endeavour to push 
the French to the Pyrenees. We had heard of the battles 
of Lutzen and Bautzen and of the armistice, and the affairs of 
the allies looked very ill.” ‘‘ Croker Papers,’ Vol. IL., 
p. 309. 
1 In the days when short ranges exposed Horse Artillery to musketry fire as at Cellada del 
Camino, and to close fighting with cavalry as at Albuera, rapidity of movement and celerity in 
serving the gun were imperative. In his able work on the “‘ Achievements of Field Artillery,’’ 
Major May justly says :—‘‘It was not through mere wantonness or love of theatrical display that 
smartness was cultivated in the old troops, nor is it open to us less fortunate in experience to deride 
methods that were the outcome of years of continuous active service, and which strove for and 
obtained efficiency solid and substantial.’’ Apropos to which we may remark that during the long 
peace which intervened between the Peninsular and Crimean wars, those who sneered and cavilled 
at the drill and movements of the Horse Artillery and called them ‘‘ Woolwich Gladiators ’’ * did 
so from lack of experience and knowledge of the conditions of service that had resulted in what 
they witnessed. Mobility and quickness in serving the gun must still be the characteristic of Horse 
Artillery, and the introduction of a lighter gun than has been in use of late years will it is hoped 
enable that arm to resume its touch with the cavalry which since the craze for long ranges and 
accurate shooting it has practically lost, —(#.A.W.) 
* It is curious that the author of this epithet in after years obtained appointment to that 
branch of the regiment which he at one time so yehemenently assailed.— (F.A.W-) 
